9148. When do you generally go to Lerwick to engage for the whaling?-About the end of February or beginning of March.
9149. Do you go straight to Messrs. Hay"s office and tell them you want an engagement?-No, I don"t go straight there; but I have always found them very favourable towards me, and therefore I have always been inclined to go out from them.
9150. Do you get your outfit supplied there?-Yes, if I require it.
9151. Do you require a new outfit for the whaling every year?- We always require something new.
9152. Do you also require supplies for your family while you are away at the fishing, such as meal, tea, flour, and things of that sort, and clothing?-Yes.
9153. Where do you keep your account for these things?-With Messrs. Hay & Co.
9154. You always get an advance paid down to you when you are first engaged?-Yes; we get our first month"s advance, and then we get a half-pay ticket.
9155. Do you always get a half-pay ticket?-Yes, those who require it.
9156. But do you always get it?-Yes; I have got it ever since it came up. I think it is only four or five years since it came to be used in Shetland.
9157. Were there no allotment tickets in use before four or five years ago?-No, not in Shetland. I never saw them before that time.
9158. Do you leave your allotment ticket with your wife?-We can leave it with any one we choose. I have generally left it with Messrs. Hay.
9159. Did you write anything upon it when you left it with them?-No.
9160. Is the allotment ticket an order to pay to you?-Yes, or to any name which is signed on it.
9161. Was it generally taken in your own name?-I had to mention the name of some person to be filled into the note, and the name of any person that I wanted to draw the money was signed there.
9162. What name did you generally give to be entered in the note?-I forget; but I think the name of Mr. William Robertson, in Messrs. Hay"s shop, has been upon it.
9163. Was that done last year?-Yes.
9164. Was his name on it in 1870 also?-I cannot exactly say.
9165. But last year you know that it was?-Yes.
9166. And he was to draw the money on your half-pay allotment ticket?-Yes; he has the ticket, and while he keeps it he knows that no person can be drawing the money. They know that the money is lying, but I don"t think Mr. Robertson has drawn the halfpay for me ever since the system commenced.
9167. Was the purpose of giving the allotment ticket to Mr.
Robertson, that Messrs. Hay might give your family credit for goods in your absence; or was it a sort of security?-It was a sort of security; but I had no fear about them providing for my family, even although they had not got the ticket.
9168. You think they would have made the advances at any rate?-Yes. They never refused either goods or money.
9169. But still the allotment ticket was a sort of security to them?-Yes.
9170. When you return from your voyage do you generally go straight home or do you take your wages at Lerwick?-I take my wages at Lerwick.
9171. Before you come home?-Yes, if possible.
9172. Do you go up and settle before the shipping-master or superintendent?-Yes, I must do that.
9173. That did not use to be done at Lerwick?-It did not.
9174. Why has it been done lately?-I don"t know.
9175. Was it not because it was not easy to get the Shetland men to wait for a settlement-they were so anxious to get home?- Perhaps it was. I and several others have to go to the North Isles and it is not every day we can get there. Staying one day in Lerwick might make us stay half a dozen, or perhaps a dozen, days; and therefore if we see a chance to get home whenever we land we are glad to take it.
9176. Then you go back when you find it convenient?-Yes.
9177. And you go before Mr. Gatherer the superintendent, and receive your wages in cash?-Yes; but many a time we have the chance of getting our money before we leave Lerwick if we could only wait another day.
9178. When you have an account standing in Messrs. Hay"s books, how do you settle it?-We go back to the shop from the shipping office and pay the money.
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9179. How long has that been done?-I suppose for the last four or five years.
9180. Before that, you had a settlement at the office, and only got the balance in cash?-Yes.
9181. Is there any deduction made now from the cash you receive at the superintendent"s office?-Nothing except the advance of our first month"s wages, and the amount drawn under allotment tickets.
9182. But when you give an allotment ticket in the way you have mentioned, how do you do: do you get your half-pay handed over to you in cash?-Yes, if it is not drawn.
9183. Is it sometimes drawn?-No; my half-pay has not been drawn, so far as I recollect. [Produces four accounts of wages.]
9184. Who is William Manson, agent for master?-He is Messrs.
Hay"s clerk.
9185. The only deduction here is for stores in the ship, and your advance, and the fees?-That is all.
9186. Then in that year, 1870, you got the balance of 16, 3s. 6d.
paid to you?-Yes.
9187. What was the amount of your account at Hay & Co."s?-I don"t remember in that year.
9188. Here [showing] is your account for 1871 when you had a balance of 19, 2s. to receive: do you remember the amount of your account, that year?-I do not.
9189. How much ready cash did you bring home with you when you had settled on 25th July?-I am not quite sure, but I think it was about 16.
9190. Then your account for the season would only be about 3?- That was all.
9191. Would that be the whole of the supplies you got for your family that year?-Yes; it was short voyage.
9192. Had you also a short and a very successful voyage last year?-Yes.
9193. You have not got your final payment of oil-money for 1871?-No.
9194. Have you got it for 1870?-Yes.
9195. Was that settled for before the superintendent, Mr.